Opposition to Pelosi hardens – POLITICO

Ten Democratic incumbents or elected members told POLITICO that they will vote against Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of Parliament, thus revealing a serious problem for the California Democrat in her attempt to retrieve the hammer.

Eight legislators or their offices said Thursday that they would oppose Pelosi. Two candidates who won on Tuesday said the same thing.

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This is a problem for Pelosi, who has led the Democratic caucus for 16 years and is significantly reducing his margin of error to lock in the 218 votes needed to return to the presidency.

The Pelosi office dismissed the idea that she would not get the votes as president. And her allies note that she has two months to win the skeptics and she intends to fight to the ground.

"Chief Pelosi has confidence in his support among elected members and members," said Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill. "Democrats do not let Republicans choose their leaders. The elections proved that GOP attacks on Pelosi just did not work. "

It'll be at least close: Without any race being decided, the Democrats won 31 seats in the mid-term elections for a total of 226, which means that Pelosi can lose eight votes in the House. However, Democratic leaders believe that they will get half a dozen seats that have not yet been formally named, which means that Pelosi could lose up to 14 members.

Meanwhile, the anti-Pelosi faction – which some have dubbed "revolutionaries" or "rebels" – is trying to increase their numbers. Eight of them participated in an hourly conference call on Wednesday night to discuss strategy and messages. They shared the names of newly elected candidates who called for "new leadership" and are mobilizing to encourage them to vote against Pelosi on the ground.

The argument of these members to incoming legislators is: you are not alone.

Pelosi's detractors claim that they could convince up to a dozen MPs to vote against Pelosi on the ground and that they might be able to oust him if these new freshmen join forces.

The eight MPs or offices that confirmed to POLITICO their intention to vote against Pelosi are the Democratic representatives. Ed Perlmutter of Colorado, who hosted the Wednesday night conference call, Kathleen Rice of New York, Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, Bill Foster of Illinois, Tim Ryan of Ohio, Filemon Vela of Texas, Kurt Schrader of Oregon and Representative Conor Lamb of Pennsylvania.

The campaigns of elected representatives Abigail Spanberger and Jason Crow told POLITICO that their leaders would not vote for her on the ground. Pelosi's critics say that there are other things to come, but as long as these members do not say it publicly, we do not know if they will follow through.

This list does not include two Democrats who voted against Pelosi in 2016: representatives Jim Cooper from Tennessee and Ron Kind from Wisconsin. Neither office returned the request for comment on its intention to do the same.

Pelosi has worked behind the scenes to strengthen his support and is already progressing. Two lawmakers removed their name from a letter calling for rule changes that would make it more difficult for her. One of these people, representative Robin Kelly, told POLITICO that she would support Pelosi on the ground.

"I think you need an experienced person at the top to help bring that together, to get organized and get off to a good start when we go back to work for the American people," Kelly said.

The other legislator who withdrew his name, Rep. Albio Sires of New Jersey, did not respond to a request for comment.

But Pelosi also convinced another former critic, New York representative Sean Patrick Maloney, who issued a statement Thursday night in which he said he supported her: "The new Democratic majority must yield results for the American people I am confident that at this critical moment, Nancy Pelosi remains the right person for the job. "

Pelosi's allies hope to convince some of the new legislators to oppose her in a secret caucus vote, where she only needs half of the Democrats to win the nomination, before voting for her screen. We also talked about voting "present" or avoiding the vote to consolidate its margin.

Schrader, who was working Thursday afternoon to hold a call with the new class of freshmen, said those candidates would be stupid to do so and that would open them to publicity for political attacks in 2020.

"If they say they will not vote for Pelosi during their election campaign, they will turn around and do it … I think it would be a foolish exercise for them and I'm just trying to advise them on the smart solution. to do, he says.

Indeed, Ryan also encouraged the rebel group to define the problem as a goal of protecting the majority: these members declared on the track that they would support the new leadership or would not support Pelosi. They may be attacked by Republicans in the future if they turn around.

As at the right time, the Republican National Committee on Thursday asked the Democratic winners whether or not they kept their promises.

"Which House Democrats will break this critical promise to their constituents as the first official act?", Reads in an email listing all Democrat candidates who have called for "new leadership" or have declared that they would not support Pelosi.

According to the anti-Pelosi organizers, lawmakers willing to vote against it would have discussed putting their name on a letter saying that they would be a no in the House. They finally decided to postpone this plan and work instead to increase their number first.

However, the group agreed on Wednesday the call for the rule proposal – a requirement that the candidate for the position of president would get 218 votes in the caucus and in the House – as early as next week: all of a sudden. first, at a caucus meeting with members, then again at a separate caucus meeting with newly elected members. Currently, Pelosi only needs half of the caucus members to apply.

The biggest problem of the rebels is this: they have no one to challenge it and, as Pelosi's allies like to say, "You can not replace anyone without one."

Some Pelosi critics had encouraged New York representative Hakeem Jeffries to run for office, but Jeffries said Thursday he was nominated for the position of Speaker of House No. 4 in the House of Representatives. Ryan, who launched an unsuccessful challenge to Pelosi in 2016, said he was not looking to run, but he did not rule out doing it.

Schrader acknowledged that a challenger would help their cause because some members feel more comfortable voting for someone rather than just voting against Pelosi. But Schrader said he understood the reasons why no one took the place because of the violent reaction that the person may face for confronting the most powerful legislator in the caucus.

"This person becomes the focus of the discussion … it hurts … and it gets really ugly, very fast," he said. "The main message is:" No matter who except her. "Then it opens up a much more friendly and better discussion about the talent we have in our caucus."